The University of Rhode Island’s theatre department wrapped up their final show of the semester, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” by Rick Elice last weekend.
The performance was held in the J-Studio at the URI Fine Arts Center. It featured eight showings spread out across two weeks with the first few performances starting before Thanksgiving break.
Peter and the Starcatcher is an origin story of the character Peter Pan. The show follows Peter’s journey to becoming the forever child that he is.
“I’m a huge fan of the play,” Ted Clement, the director of the show, said. “I have been [a fan] for some time, and I’m a big fan of the story basis. I grew up enjoying the various incarnations of the Peter Pan stories.”
Clement was a guest director from the Community College of Rhode Island’s theatre department, which is a common occurrence among faculty directors, according to Clement.
“A lot of colleges will have, in their season, faculty directors who work at the colleges but they will often hire guest directors on a variety of productions,” Clement said.
Clement was offered the position of guest director from Paula McGlasson, the URI theatre department chair, and accepted it. Clement said that the rehearsal time didn’t last all that long.
“We read through the script maybe six weeks ago and just about four weeks of rehearsal time,” Clement said. “That allowed for three and a half weeks for staging and choreography.”
For Clement, he really credits the actor’s dedication to mastering the play and wanting to make the production as good as it could be in such a short time.
“We rehearsed six days a week for those four weeks,” Clement said. “I have only positive things to say about the people that I worked with on this show because of the quality of work they brought to it and the tremendous effort they exhibited throughout the process.”
The quick turnaround was due to rehearsals starting shortly after the theatre department’s first play of the semester “Machinal,” according to Abraphine Ngafaih, a third-year student who starred as Molly.
“I think everyone was just hyped to get it down,” Ngafaih said.
There were a lot of cast members working on this play, according to Ngafaih. She felt the copious amount of cast members was nerve-racking, but after a while their personalities came together and the cast formed a community after some time rehearsing.
For Ngafaih, getting to know her character Molly came with a lot of trial and error.
“When I first got the script I felt Molly would be very proper, like Harmione from ‘Harry Potter,’ like ‘I would never do that’ type of person,” Ngafaih said. “But then I thought, they’re all orphans, I think she may be very boisterous and opinionated.”
One of the standout performers that Ngafaih gave a lot of credit to was Max Hunter, a first-year student who starred as Peter.
“[Hunter] was very dedicated,” Ngafaih said. “The first thing he did was get his lines down before everyone else, he was just so prepared.”
The URI theatre department has concluded its schedule for the fall semester but there will be more to come in the spring semester starting at the end of February 2025. Future showtimes and ticketing information can be found on their event website .